Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior and Accountability Shahzad Akbar told the National Assembly on Friday that the government doesn’t have any agreement with the Broadsheet at present. Akbar said all agreements with the UK-based firm were made by the previous governments.
“The government lost the case, proceedings of which were carried out after an appeal was filed in the high court in our tenure,” he said during the proceedings of the lower house of the parliament in Islamabad. “We are working in terms of government to government,” Akbar said and added, “no one has been paid any additional money.”
Submitting the details of the East Recovery Unit in connection with the case, the special adviser said, “the first agreement with the firm was signed in 2000 but it was cancelled in 2003.” “The next contact with the firm was made in 2008, wherein two payments of $1.8 million and $1.5 million were made,” he said. “The Broadsheet said in 2009 that the payment had been made to the wrong company, following by further proceedings. In 2018, the country paid the fine of $21.5 million. On January 18, the government made public the judgments against the country in the Broadsheet case and revealed that the major portion of the money was paid to the asset recovery firm in connection with the foreign assets of the Sharif family.
